Women in an urban, Malay population reported menstrual period lengths that tended to coincide with the lengths of the calendar months in which the periods began. This pattern may be related to the calendar-month pay periods for the population.
This article examines retest reliability and digit preference in retrospective survey data on breastfeeding duration and type of supplementary food, covering three decades and reported by more than 1200 Malaysian women. Women with little or no education, rural residents, and those of Malay ethnicity are found to give less reliable data. In a logistic regression analysis, these respondent characteristics are more important determinants of data quality than the length of the recall period.
Wild, adult siamang were observed for over 800 h in lowland dipterocarp forest in the Krau Game Reserve, Pahang, West Malaysia. Siamang use four patterns of locomotion: brachiation, climbing, bipedalism and leaping. The pattern of locomotion used by the siamang varies with the size of arboreal supports and with major behavioral activity. Travel is primarily by brachiation along large boughs. Locomotion during feeding is primarily climbing among small branches. In feeding, siamang use suspensory postures among small supports and seated postures on large supports. Comparison of siamang locomotion and posture with that of other apes suggest that quadramanous climbing during feeding is the basic hominoid locomotor adaptation.
Data from the Malaysian Family Life Survey show an increase in the percentage of infants breastfed, at least initially, from 75 per cent in 1970-74 to 79 per cent in 1975-77. Contrary to what would be expected if Malaysia were following the trends observed in the United States and Western Europe, the increase has occurred among poor and uneducated women as well as among the more fortunate. The increase was especially marked for infants born in hospitals and private clinics, which had very low rates of breastfeeding in the early 1970s. The change may be due partly to a shift in the practices and recommendations of health professionals. Trends in infant feeding practices in Malaysia during the whole period 1950-77 are reviewed. Reasons for thinking the increase in the mid-1970s an artifact of the survey are presented and provisionally rejected. The implications of these findings for child health policy in Malaysia and for theories of infant feeding trends in developing countries are discussed.
A life table for an aboriginal Malaysian population, the Semelai, living in West Malaysia, was constructed using censuses from 1965, 1969, and 1974; and interview data from 1974. The life expectancy at birth for this population, 54.0 years, was compared to that of other Malaysian populations and selected Asian populations. This comparison indicated that the Semelai were at a disadvantage compared to the Malaysian populations, but in a favorable position when compared with the other Asian populations.
This report describes the ethical and legal aspects of assisted reproduction technology (ART) that have been instituted in Asian countries. The data were collected by a questionnaire circulated to ART units in Asia. These are Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Iran, India, Jordan, Malaysia, China, Israel, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Persian Gulf countries. According to the survey, there are approximately 260 ART centers in Asia (half of which are in Japan). On a global basis each ART centre in Asia serves an average population of 13 million people. On the other hand, in those Asian countries where the standards of living are relatively high, the availability of ART services, including the more sophisticated and costly ART procedures like micromanipulation, is similar to that in the Western world. In most of the Asian countries practising ART, however, no state registry exists. Taiwan is the only country that has specific legislation, and in six other countries some kind of ministerial regulations are practised. We conclude that ART is now practised in 20 countries in Asia. The prevailing rules and cultural heritage in many of these Asian countries has a major influence on the implementation of ART in Asia. However, in view of the complicated and sensitive issues involved, and as no supervision on ART clinics exists in most of the Asian countries, we advocate that some kind of quality control should be urgently instituted in all centres practising ART. In this way, it is hoped that the highest standards be attained for all parties concerned.
Men who have sex with men (MSM) is one of the key populations affected by HIV epidemic with infection rates exceeding five percentages. Due to a strict and prohibitive socio-cultural and legal environment, male-to-male sexual practices are often misunderstood and highly stigmatised, thus creating barriers for MSM to access HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.